


You Needed Me

by intangible_rice



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, caveline, implied anyway, non-serious suicide mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-04 01:12:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17888729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intangible_rice/pseuds/intangible_rice
Summary: When Cave receives his first notice that the Senate hearings are coming, he doesn't tell Caroline. But somehow, she knows anyway. Implied Caveline.





	You Needed Me

**Author's Note:**

> At this point I'm trying to will myself to start writing again by continuing to revisit old stuff that I see something interesting in. This was a short drabble that originally didn't have a title, so I came up with the best I could think of.

Cave stared down at the stack of papers again, but still failed to grasp the meaning behind any of them.

A few words amongst the miles of legal jargon jumped out at him – “Violations,” “Fines,” “Summons”… He sighed and poured out another glass from the whiskey bottle on his desk. Who the hell was he kidding? He knew what all of this meant, even if he couldn’t decipher the words. He didn’t need to. It meant he was finished, plain and simple.

* * *

Caroline turned over again under the itchy white sheets. They were a remnant from some old experiment aimed at creating an Aperture Fabrics division, after Nylon and Polyester had taken off. Despite being banned from the market ages ago, Apylon was retained in all of the facility dormitories as a cost-cutting measure. Caroline had gotten used to their scratchy sensations long ago, but tonight it seemed to form an impenetrable barrier between her and sleep. Though, her instinct told her that it wasn’t actually the sheets bothering her – everything felt wrong somehow. The workday, the experiments, her interactions with her boss… She’d said good night and left him to wrap up a few loose ends countless times before, but for once, she hadn’t quite believed him today when he said that was all he had left to do. She closed her eyes again, but no matter how tightly she squeezed them shut, a strange feeling nagged at the back of her mind, preventing her from drifting off.

Finally she sighed, pulled back the coarse fabric, and sat up.

* * *

So what were the options now? Cave mused as he finished off the bottle. Life in prison? Suicide? Selling out to Black Mesa? He wasn’t sure which was more grim.

He put his head in his hands. Sure, he’d known that some of the work Aperture had been doing wasn’t exactly kosher. But shouldn’t science be about taking risks? Couldn’t they see what it was that he was working towards, what amazing things his company had done and could still do? If he wasn’t so stinking drunk and depressed, he would have flown into a rage.

* * *

Caroline stood with her hand up in a fist, ready to knock on the door in front of her. Instead she hesitated. This was ridiculous. It was the middle of the night. She almost made a motion to turn around and go back to bed, but found herself unable to do that, either. That feeling continued to nag at her. Finally she sighed, held up her hand again, and knocked.

* * *

Cave’s eyes went from the door to his clock in disbelief. Surely he’d just been hearing things? No one would have any reason to come to his office at this hour. Unless this whole court procedure was moving faster than he’d expected. Cave considered that unlikely, however. If it had taken the US Government this long to notice some “unethical procedures” at Aperture, he couldn’t see them getting off their asses to arrest him on the same day they issued the notice about it. Cave shook off enough of his melancholy to shuffle across the room and open the door.

“Caroline?” he said, perplexed by the sight of his assistant in her pajamas. She, like him, looked tired but too consumed with other problems to allow for a luxury like sleep. “What are you doing here?”

“I just…” Caroline paused. She knew it would sound strange, but it was already strange enough for him to be exactly where she’d expected. “…felt like you needed me, sir.”

Cave stared at her for a while, before a weary, grateful smile spread across his face. “You’re damn right I do,” he said gently, letting her in.


End file.
